Robot Wars Wiki:Canon
As a precaution against Robot Wars Wiki acquiring a reputation for poor fact-checking, the canon policy now applies to all articles in the mainspace. 'The TV Broadcast is Canon, until such time as it is explicitly disproved.' *''Robot Wars'' is a TV show first and foremost, and the version of events as broadcast and explained on the show is accepted until explicitly disproved. *To disprove the TV show, there must be one of the following: **'A factual error, disproven by the show itself:' **Examples: ***'Spelling errors and mistaken words': Destruct-A-Bubble was mistakenly spelled as "Distruct-A-Bubble". Shadow of Napalm was mistakenly referred to as Son of Napalm in the recap in the grand final. ***'Incorrect recollections': Killertron is explicitly referred to as placing third in Series 2, when it came fourth. The broadcast itself explains this. ***'Omissions': Terror-Bull was twice labelled as a new robot in Heat G of Series 6, its previous appearance in Series 4 being completely ignored. **'An express contradiction by persons to whom the broadcast information relates:' **Examples: ***Or Te is styled as Orte on the TV broadcast. Unlike the Destruct-A-Bubble example, it is called this consistently. However, the Or Te Facebook page indicates that the team wishes it to be called Or Te. ***101 is constantly stated as being named for its cheap price of ₤1.01. In fact, it actually cost around £12.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/838212.stm **'Another reliable source' ***Bondi-Titch was held out by the broadcast as a robot from Brisbane, Australia. However, according to John Heatlie of Corkscrew, who was in the same battle as Bondi-Titch, Bondi-Titch was a stock robot painted and named to be an Australian robot, and the two roboteers were actually competition winners from Australia who flew out to take control of the robot.Youtube comment from John Heatlie **Reference all contradictions ***Anything falling underneath the above should be referenced, either with an explanatory footnote or a reference with a link. **Unsubstantiated information that contradicts the show will be marked with a template. The template is to remain there until such time as the information is cited properly. If a significant period of time passes and no one substantiates the claim, then the information may be deleted. **'Roboteer-Wiki User correspondence': If Wikians correspond with roboteers via Facebook or email, then screenshots of the correspondence should be uploaded and posted to the talk page. However, exemptions can be granted by an admin if there is no reasonable prospect of accessing old quotes, depending on the reputation of the user for honesty. 'Roboteer contributions' Unlike many other Wikia projects like Harry Potter and Pokémon, original information is often offered to the Wiki. We accept that roboteers know more about their robot than ordinary users could, however there are some strict requirements for original contributions. *'Identify yourself clearly': Roboteers who seek to contribute must be clearly identifiable by an admin. Whilst we assume good faith, we cannot assume identity based on contribution alone. Roboteers are asked to identify themselves on their talk page after . Unacceptable identification includes "we", "I am a member of the team" or anything else non-conclusive. The more verification you provide, the more likely your edits will be acceptable. **Example: **User:Shredder TC - Team Captain of Shredder **User:Ray t - Ray Thompson of Infernal Contraption. *'State overriding information on the talk page, and sign it': Where a roboteer seeks to correct incorrect information, they must specifically state what is wrong, what is right, and sign their name to that it can be identified. *'The encyclopaedia is not for every little detail': The articles always benefit from more content, but not every single little thing about the machine. It isn't for talking about unrelated matters like where the team are now, what they did with their lives outside Robot Wars, or how many screws were used to build the robot. If you wouldn't care to read it about any other robot, don't put it on your article. *'Do not pass off allegations as fact': Robot Wars Wiki:Subjective Beliefs applies to roboteers just as much as ordinary users, perhaps even more so. 'Official ''Robot Wars publications, merchandise and announcements If Robot Wars merchandise contradicts the broadcast or Robot Wars rules, it should be disregarded. *Examples: **''Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide'' misidentifies the shortest battle in UK Robot Wars as being Spawn Again v Evolution. However, the TV show demonstrates that Cerberus v Griffon actually held this record. Because the TV show is a higher degree of canon, the Ultimate Guide is disregarded. **The Ultimate Guide also specifies that Atomic was able to throw Reactor out of the arena during the qualifiers. However, this has since been discovered to be against the rules during the qualifiers. '''Other Rules *'Naming a robot': **When robots are given different names, all names are considered canon unless they fall within the typo exception. The robot name most prevalent or in most circumstances, most generic, becomes the title of the page. See Robot Wars Wiki:Style Guide *'Non-canon honours': **Honours are limited to the show. **However, if agreed, some can be listed if based purely on observations of content and how highly regarded such an act is. ***Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide lists the shortest battle record (albeit misappropriating the holder of that record). Therefore, this is considered an honour. ***Much is made of throwing a robot out of the arena - far more so than pitting an opponent or destroying one with a flywheel. Therefore, identifying who achieved the most of these is permissible. ***Obvious honours like longest undefeated streak and most victories are allowed, despite being non-canon, because they are based on observation. ***The Combat Robot Hall of Fame is also addressed, due to its relevancy throughout Robot Wars. *'As far as the Wikia is concerned, the events between the Series 7 and the 2016 series are not related to Robot Wars' **Between Robot Wars: The Seventh Wars and the 2016 series, Team Roaming Robots established additional tournaments in which several prominent robots won significant titles. **However, for the purpose of the Wikia, the show went on hiatus and all events outside broadcast Robot Wars episodes are non-canon. Therefore, Typhoon 2 was the incumbent UK Champion until the 2016 series, rather than Eruption or TR2. The rebranded Robot Wars live events are covered on relevant competitor pages, but are treated as a separate entity to the TV show. *'Outside Robot Wars' **This section "Outside Robot Wars" is not intended to be a dominant or even prominent part of the article. It falls below all sections relevant to Robot Wars itself, including the Series Record. Robot Wars Live Events also take priority over events such as Techno Games, Roaming Robots and Robots Live! in the article structure. *'Qualifiers' **The coverage of Qualifiers on a competitor article is determined on a case-by-case basis. Robots with known details of its entire qualification history may receive a dedicated section covering it, but robots with only some qualification details known should only mention the information in the introductory paragraph. *'Battle Length' **Because the broadcasts are edited and filled with replays, it is difficult to time a battle by watching it. A battle is deemed to be the length of battle broadcast on TV, subtracting any replay time. Therefore, if a battle takes 30 seconds from activate to the Refbot counter, with ten seconds of replay, the battle is deemed 20 seconds long, even if footage has been edited out. 'Exceptions' *'Rivalries': Whilst there were indeed some rivalries in Robot Wars, many of them were staged for entertainment purposes, especially those showcased in Robot Wars Extreme: Series 1/Vengeance. Do not take them at face value by using the words "bitter" or "infamous". References